Editor’s Note: The video above is from KXAN’s newscast on Oct. 22, 2025.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that he had directed state agencies to clear out homeless encampments in the city of Austin, city officials have suggested the state may not be offering the people at those encampments shelter or services.
“We don’t have any updates on the governor’s initiative and I’m not even sure if they were providing any social service opportunities,” Director of Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations David Gray said Wednesday.
While Abbott said the state effort would ensure Texans do “not endure public safety risk from homeless encampments and individuals,” the governor’s office has not responded to requests from KXAN asking where people at those encampments would be relocated to so that they don’t simply return or relocate to another encampment.
Gray said the city has offered to let the state use its city-owned shelters to get people out of encampments and into a place with services.
“We’ve extended the olive branch. If they want to make service referrals into our system as part of their initiative, we’re more than happy to coordinate around that. We just need them to be willing to come to the table and have that conversation with us,” Gray said.
On Tuesday, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said the city was unaware the state was going to send its teams onto city property instead of targeting state-run areas, like underpasses and near freeways.
“At a minimum there ought to be coordination that goes on,” Watson said when asked about the state initiative during a news conference Tuesday. He said if the city knew where the state would be allocating resources, it would target other areas.
“Heck, I’m willing to have Governor Abbott come with me and I would love to walk him through what the whole system looks like. I would love to have him come and see the level of intensity that we put into addressing this problem as opposed to just having press releases go out,” Watson said.
KXAN has also asked the governor’s office whether it intends to coordinate with the city of Austin. This story will be updated if we receive a response.
Where are people being relocated to during Austin’s encampment effort?
Starting Monday, the city of Austin independently launched a homeless encampment surge, which is scheduled to last for roughly three weeks, according to a memo from Director of Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations David Gray.
“Multiple City departments are assigning staff to one of 12 crews working across three geographic zones in the City. The City is also stopping general intake at City-owned shelters to devote to this initiative,” that document said.
Gray told KXAN the city has roughly 60 shelter beds available at those various city shelters dedicated to this initiative.
“We’ve been able to shelter about 10 people and connect about a dozen others with social services, and all of our outreach teams are offering those social services,” Gray said Wednesday morning.
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